Full tours

These comprehensive tours are an ideal way of seeing a lot of Britain, visiting stately homes, cathedrals, historic cities and scenic National Parks. Everything is arranged for you — accom­modation in good, normally centrally located hotels, breakfasts and dinners, and many admission charges are included in the cost of your tour.

Choose a four-day tour form London, visiting York, Edin­burgh, the Lake District and Stratford-upon-Avon, or a spectac­ular 10-day Grand Tour of Britain, travelling from London in the south, across to Wales, and northwards as far as Grantown-on-Spey at the heart of Scotland's whisky distilling area, taking in historic places in between. Or a seven-day exploration of Scotland, visiting Edinburgh, St. Andrews (the home of golf), the Trossachs and the beautiful coastal, mountain and lakeland scenery of the Highlands, including the Isle of Skye. These are just three examples.

Whatever tour you take, rest assured that British coaches are modern, comfortable and operated by an experienced, qualified driver/courier. Hotels are carefully selected, and very often you will find a private bathroom attached to your room. Ask the Brit­ish Travel Centre in London, for details on coach operators and tours.

1. Look at this promotional leaflet about an imaginary coach tour in Europe.

Sunsearcher Tours — why we're the ones for you

Our coaches...

• spacious, modern, and reliable

• air-conditioning on all coaches

• on-board toilet facilities

• comfortable reclining seats

• panoramic windows

• daily seat rotation

Our staff...

• highly-trained and courteous drivers

• efficient and knowledgeable escorts

• local English-speaking guides in all cities

Our accommodation...

• good quality three-star hotels

• convenient central locations

• all rooms have private facilities

• breakfast included

With Sunsearcher Tours — the pleasure's yours

3. Which of the advertised features of the tour could these negative adjectives be associated with?

Broken down, dirty, out of date, rusty, cramped, ignorant, overbooked, crowded incomprehensible, rude, unhelpful

DIALOGUE 1

Read a conversation between two friends, one of whom was on the coach tour. As you read, identify which of the advertised features were problematic. Note down the details of exactly what was wrong.

Features	Details of problem

A disastrous tour

Jude: Hi, Lucy.

Lucy: Hi, Jude. How was your holiday?

Jude: Don't ask — it was a complete and utter disaster.

Lucy: Why? What happened? Was it the weather? It wasn't very nice here.

Jude: No, the weather was fine. The places we visited were fine — the cities, the scenery were all fine. The hotels were fine — more or less. Even the coach was fine, if you don't mind travelling on an out of date, broken down, rusty museum-piece!

Lucy: Oh, dear. But I thought you said it was going to be a lux­ury coach.

Jude: That was what the brochure said — spacious, modern, and reliable. In fact it was over ten years old. It did have air-conditioning, and that was fine at first — when we really didn't need it. But as soon as we got to the hotter places, just before Barcelona, it broke down.

Lucy: Oh dear, that must have been awful.

Jude: And worse than that, the on-board toilets were filthy and disgusting — they didn't work properly and no one ever seemed to clean them out.

Lucy: Oh, no! That's the last thing you want. But the view was OK?

Jude: No, the windows all steamed up with condensation and you couldn't see a thing most of the time.

Lucy: Oh Jude, it sounds terrible. Weren't there any good points?

Jude: Well, the escort was very nice. We all felt so sorry for her. She really did her best, but she was faced with such prob­lems. The local guides were a different kettle of fish — they hardly spoke English and we couldn't understand a word. Jane, the escort, ended up interpreting a lot of the time.

Lucy: It sounds like she had as bad a time as you.

Jude: She did. Oh, and the worst thing was the driver. He was just so unbelievably rude and ignorant. Every morning he was miserable and he swore at one of the passengers who was five minutes late one day. Then another day he left all the luggage at the hotel.

Lucy: That's terrible. Did you get it back?

Jude: Yes, but only after there was nearly a riot. And there was one more thing. We lost two people, an American cou­ple. We left them behind Barcelona. We waited ages. Jane searched everywhere, phoned various places. You can imagine what mood the driver was in. After about three hours sitting on the hot sticky coach we left — it meant we had to miss out on one of the visits.

Lucy: Do you know what happened to them?

Jude: No, they must have made their own way back. Actually, I prefer to think that they escaped!

Lucy: Yes, probably glad to get away

Jude: I tell you, it was the coach tour from hell! I need another holiday to get over that one.

Lucy: Poor you! You'll have to complain.

Jude: Of course — I've already sent a long letter.

Lucy: Come and have a coffee and we can talk about something else... .

(by Keith Harding)

WRITING

On the coach tour, the escort had to contact her head office to inform them of the problems she was having. Look at her first fax and note the standard layout of the headings. The message is mixed up. Put the sentences in the right order.

Hotel La Plaza Fax message

Barcelona

To	Sunsearcher Tours Head Office
Attention	Operations Manager
From	Jane Dancaster
Date	15 August
Pages	1

Re: Tour ET 612: European Delights

1. Yesterday the air-conditioning also broke down.

2. Please reply a.s.a.p.

3. I am writing to let you know we have had one or two prob­lems with the coach.

4. I have therefore had to restrict its use.

5. Firstly, the toilet is not operating correctly.

0 If not, could you authorize me to have an emergency ser­vice at the next convenient place?

g) The temperature is now nearly 40 degrees Celsius and obviously it is very uncomfortable.

h) Although 1 have tried to keep it clean, this has not been possible.

i) Is there any chance of a replacement coach?

Regards, Jane

Here are notes for Jane's second fax. Write the com­plete fax, including headings. She is now staying at the Hotel Majestica in Seville.

• pity you couldn't send replacement coach

• managed to get air-con to work a little

• must complain about driver

• rude and uncooperative

• argument with me yesterday

• swore at passenger this morning

• left luggage at hotel and refused to go back for it

• request advice

3. Now write a third fax concerning the incident with the lost passengers.

4. Give a good literally translation.

SCHEDULED COACH SERVICES

Maybe you are an adventurer and want to plan your own route, and take it at your own pace? Then Britain's long-dis­tance coach network is just for you. Scheduled coaches run at regular intervals to every major town and city, and this is the most economical method of public transport. National Express is the largest operator, based at Victoria coach Station, Buck­ingham Palace Road, London SW 1.

You can buy individual tickets for each journey, but if you plan to do a lot of traveling, then a wise purchase is the Tourist Trail Pass. Purchase of this card provides unlimited travel on all National Express and Caledonian Express coach services in En­gland, Scotland and Wales for a choice of durations ranging from 3 to 15 days within a limited period.

TALKING POINTS ■■■■■■ ■ ■ ■

1. What are the advantages and disadvantages of travel­ing by coach and traveling by train?

2. Think about a coach journey you have been on. De­scribe it. Make sure you include words from the Word Bank.

PROJECT WORK ■ ■■■■

Finishing your work at this Unit you should prepare one of the parts of your project work:

— using tourist booklets make up an itinerary for the coach trip around a chosen country

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